James v. State

JOSEPH M. ELLIS, Judge.

Chester James appeals from the denial of his Rule 29.15 motion for post-conviction relief following an evidentiary hearing. In his sole point on appeal, Appellant contends that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to strike a venireperson for cause after she indicated that she would draw an adverse inference from a criminal defendant’s failure to testify and that the motion court, therefore, clearly erred in finding that he received effective assistance of counsel. For the following reasons, we reverse the decision of the motion court.

Appellant was charged by…